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Priyanka Chopra
Priyanka Chopra (born 18 July 1982) is an Indian film actress, singer, and songwriter. The winner of the Miss India World and Miss World pageants of 2000, through her successful film career Chopra has become one of Bollywood's highest-paid actresses and one of the most popular celebrities in India. She has won a National Film Award for Best Actress and Filmfare Awards in four categories. Chopra was born in Jamshedpur to parents who were both physicians in the Indian Army. As a result of their occupations, she frequently travelled as a child but considers Bareilly to be her real home. She also lived for a period with her aunt in the United States. In 2000, her mother entered her into the Femina Miss India contest, in which she finished second and took the Femina Miss India World title. She was then entered into the Miss World pageant, where she was crowned Miss World 2000 and Miss World Continental Queen of Beauty Asia & Oceania, becoming the fifth Indian to win the competition. Although Chopra had aspirations to graduate with a degree in engineering or psychiatry, she accepted offers to join the Indian film industry, making her acting debut in the Tamil film Thamizhan in 2002. The following year, she starred in The Hero, her first Hindi filmrelease, and followed it with the box-office hit Andaaz, which won her the Filmfare Best Female Debut Award and a nomination for the Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award. She subsequently earned wide critical recognition for the role of a seductress in the 2004 thriller Aitraaz, winning her the Filmfare Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role. By 2006, Chopra had established herself as a leading actress of Hindi cinema with starring roles in the highly successful films Krrish and Don. After receiving mixed reviews for a series of unsuccessful films, she was praised for her portrayal of unconventional characters, including a troubled model in the 2008 drama Fashion, a feisty Marathi woman in the 2009 caper thriller Kaminey, a serial killer in the 2011 neo-noir 7 Khoon Maaf, and an autistic woman in the 2012 romantic comedy Barfi! CNN-IBN has described Chopra "as one of the most powerful actresses in the current lot and someone who doesn't shy away from experimenting with roles within the realms of popular cinema", thanks to her considerable range of acting roles. In addition to acting in films, she has participated in stage shows, hosted a reality show on television, and written columns for India's national newspapers. Chopra has engaged in philanthropic activities, and was appointed as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for Child Rights on 10 August 2010. In 2012, she released her first single "In My City", which, although a commercial success in India, was met with mixed reactions from the critics. Biography Priyanka Chopra was born on 18 July 1982 in Jamshedpur, Bihar (now in Jharkhand), to Ashok and Madhu Chopra, both physicians in the Indian Army. Among the schools she attended were La Martiniere Girls' School in Lucknow In an interview published in Daily News and Analysis, Chopra said that she did not mind travelling regularly and changing schools; she welcomed it as a new experience and a way to discover India's multicultural society. Chopra has fond memories as a child of playing in the valleys of Leh, in the cold northwestern Indian desert region of Jammu and Kashmir. She has said: I think I was in Class 4 when I was in Leh. My brother was just born. My dad was in the army and was posted there. I stayed in Leh for a year and my memories of that place are tremendous ... We were all army kids there. We weren't living in houses, we were in bunkers in the valley and there was a stupa right on top of a hill which used to overlook our valley. We used to race up to the top of the stupa and that too 'nange paon' (bare feet). We used to go to the market then. At the age of thirteen, Chopra moved to the United States to live with her aunt, attending schools in Newton, Massachusetts, and Cedar Rapids, Iowa. While in Massachusetts, she participated in several theatre productions and studied Western classical music, choral singing and Kathak dance. Chopra was the only Indian in her class to have been selected at state level for the National Opus Honour Choir. However, by Grade 10, she was keen on becoming a software engineer or a criminal psychologist, rather than a performer. During her teenage years in America, Chopra sometimes faced racial issues and bullying for her looks. She has said, "I was gawky imperfect, had low self-esteem, came from a modest middle-class background, had white marks on my legs. But I was damn hard working. Today, my legs sell 12 brands. Chopra returned to India, finishing her high-school education at the Army Public School in Bareilly. During this period, she won the local "May Queen" beauty pageant, after which she was pursued by admirers, leading her family to equip their home with bars for her protection. Her mother then entered her in the Femina Miss India contest of 2000; Chopra said that the Miss India and Miss World titles brought her recognition, and she then began receiving offers for film roles. Manish Telikic Chary said that Chopra's decision to pursue a film career was like many "beauty queens who sought careers in movies, setting new standards for beauty in Bollywood. Chopra has maintained a strong relationship with her family, including her younger brother, Siddharth, and lives in an apartment on the same floor as her family, with her dog Brando. Music career Chopra's main vocal influence was her father, who she said was "an incredible singer", and helped develop her interest in singing. She used her vocal talent early in her pageantry career. Her first recording, the song "Ullathai Killadhe" in the Tamil film Thamizhan (2002), was made at the urging of her director and co-star, Vijay (who had noticed her singing on the set). She declined to sing preferring to concentrate on her acting career, but later sang the song live on the television programme Sa Re Ga Ma Pa. In August 2011, Universal Music Group signed Chopra to a worldwide recording agreement with DesiHits. The deal indicated that her first studio album would be released by Interscope Records in North America and by Island Records elsewhere. Troy Carter (Coalition Media Group), CEO of Atom Factory (which also manages Lady Gaga), was signed by Chopra to manage her music career. Other works Television and stage performances In 2007, Chopra was on the judges' panel of the Miss India pageant. She stated, "Miss India will always remain special. That's where it all started for me. And maybe that's where it would've ended if I hadn't won the crown." She also performed at Miss India in 2009 and 2013, and was a judge at Miss World 2009. In 2010, she hosted the third season of the reality show Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi on the Colors channel, taking over from previous host Akshay Kumar. According to contestants, in hosting the series, Chopra had "transformed into quite a whip-wielding dictator", relentlessly pushing the contestants to work. She performed most of her own stunts, adamant to prove that she could rival Akshay Kumar, who had hosted the previous two seasons. The opening ratings of the show topped those of the two previous seasons. The show was praised by critics, and earned the Indian Telly Award for Most Impactful Debut on Television. She visited Jawan troops in Tenga, in eastern India, for a special episode of the NDTV show Jai Jawan celebrating the 60th anniversary of India's independence. Category:Priyanka Chopra